Saturday, October 22, 2011

President Obama fulfilled a campaign promise by announcing that the troops will come home from Iraq by the end of the year. Lawrence O’Donnell recounts the terrible costs of the war, based on false premises of WMD: for Americans, 4,482 lives, 32,213 wounded, 1,146 amputees; for Iraqis, over 100,000 casualties. The Republicans are filled with misgivings at the announcement. Herman Cain wouldn’t have told the enemy about the withdrawal; presumably 39,000 troops could withdraw in secret, with the Iraqi government also kept in the dark and given no time to prepare. Mitt Romney decries Obama’s “astonishing failure to secure an orderly transition,” without specifying how he would do so, if ever. Rick Perry echoes this point. John McCain criticizes this “strategic victory for our enemies." When would the Republicans think is the right time to withdraw and under what circumstances? None of the statements clarify that–and none mention the cost of continuing operations, for all of the GOP's talk about cutting the deficit. Rachel Maddow joins O'Donnell to point out that the Republicans didn’t complain when George Bush negotiated this very withdrawal timeline with the Iraqi government. Watch: